Does your 3 have the ATX transmission cooler?

If it does, I'd say the fluid will probably be good for 50k+ without changes. Although, I have not had my 3 for that many miles yet, so I can't say for sure.

The previous gen of 3's needed a ATX drain and fill probably between 20-30k to keep the fluid looking and smelling like new.

ATF should be red in color and smell sweet, if it smells burnt, its being overheated and a drain and fill should be done. I will probably start doing drain and fills as preventative maintenance around 15k or so and every other oil change after that.

The PS fluid will last quite a while as it does not get anywhere near as hot as the ATX fluid. Our cars use ATX fluid in the power steering (Mercon III, Dexon II, or Mazda M-V). So just get an extra quart or so when you buy fluid for the transmission. Same test applies here for the power steering, smells burnt? Then drain and fill.

Brake fluid should ideally be changed out once a year for maximum performance, but typically every other year is fine and the most recommended interval. Waiting too long causes moisture build up in the fluid, lowering the boiling point. This would be bad in situations where you're stressing your brakes and they're at the threshold.

 

I have a 2010 Mazda 3 GT 2.5 liter with 5 speed auto. I'm not sure if it has a transmission cooler or not...car is stock.

 

Brake fade doing 130mph into a hairpin turn is not cool. lol I have not looked into the recommended intervals, but if its not too expensive, get it done sooner then later and risk the chance of having any problems.

 

Look above your drivers side fog light and you should see the ATX oil cooler.

 

Did some searching on this site and didn't see anything regarding a DIY ATF change and flush. Has anyone done this yet? A shop near me said they would do it for $130 but Id rather save the money and do it myself. I saw this video and thought it might be possible to do something similar with the 2010 Mazda 3s. Any thoughts?

Btw, I have a 2010 Mazda 3 2.5L

Video:

 

I took my car in for an oil change this past Monday, and the dealer told me that my transmission fluid was about due for a change. They recommend doing it every 30,000 to 40,000 miles. I'm at 33,000 miles now.

Of course the dealer quoted me over $200 since, according to them, they completely flush the whole system and refill it. Other places just drain what they can and add new stuff to the old fluid that's still in the pipes.

 

I would definitely be interested in doing this myself. specially now that my car is about to hit the big 36k.

 

I'm hoping that somebody more mechanically advanced than me will do a nice write up or video. I don't know enough to do this by myself.

 

I am confused, the dealer said I need to come in at 3000 mi for the first oil change. I do my own service work but this is the only new car I have owned. The manual says schedule 2 is every 7500 mi. So which is it?

 

My manual says its at 5k miles I'm in U.S. The dealer says 3k so they get you in more often. The shorter interval doesn't hurt but its not necessary either.

 

They only say oil change at 3,000 to make money. 7,500 is fine for normal driving conditions, especially if you use synthetic oil.

 

As for transmission service, my local Mazda dealer said NOT to power flush new transmissions ( and they have the power flush equipment ) because new trannys have so many small parts and one way valves it will do more damage than good. He said drain / refill is the best for the car and that will get about 40% of fluid each time. I did a basic step by step write up in another thread.

http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/...s/2010-mazda-3-engine-performance/8406-automatic-transmission-observations.html

 

Does anyone know if the transmission filter is accessable with the pan drop or does it require the transmission to be seperated to acess?

 

Dealer told me the Mazda 5 spd automatic transmission does not have a serviceable filter that can be reached by dropping the pan. I'm thinking about buying an inline filter.